So there was this one TV show where the main characters had each been (independently) kidnapped and then wake up in a strange town with no idea why.

I absolutely loved that show. So bummed that it was only one season…

@Pavel said in Requring Character Connections at Chargen:

My main thought process with any rule or policy like this is “why?”

If I can get a good reason why, even though the rule is off-putting to me, I can take some satisfaction in knowing it was actually considered rather than just some arbitrary thing that was decided.

The idea was supposed to be that new players would have people they could go to for RP rather than start out not having any connections and wandering around unable to get hooked into RP and plots. If they already knew each other, they would have at least someone and something to talk about to get the RP ball rolling.

It didn’t work that way in practice, but that was the theory. They explained it often since a lot of people had the same questions you guys have.

Shattered does something similar, where they have a ‘hooks’ page. That lets people list what outposts they served at, but again allows people to be like ‘hey we both served at x,y,z maybe we know each other’. Without forcing it.

You could also imagine a game based on a Firefly-like setting where everyone was crew on a small, independent ship. That might be a situation where, thematically, you might insist that everyone already knew each other at least a little bit.

But most games will be somewhere in-between, where there are some people who know each other and others who don’t. Trying to legislate that just seems weird to me.

The only thing I can think of that makes sense would be if there was some kind of setting that required either people all know each other or know nothing about each other (someone else mentioned that possibility above).

If every character comes to the setting as an amnesiac, maybe? Or if everyone is supposed to be in the same family? Stuff like that.

If I can get a good reason why, even though the rule is off-putting to me, I can take some satisfaction in knowing it was actually considered rather than just some arbitrary thing that was decided.

If you are getting solo people who don’t get involved (I don’t mean people who complain about not being included plots and think they are being shunned) try opening a door for them to get involved. Some won’t. Like me. I’ll likely be ‘Take someone who is more invested than me. I would just do it on a whim or because it is time for your thing and you are still asking for people’ unless you specifically tell me this is an angle to get me involved. And some will take that door. Leave options for people to connect to NPCs and/or willing PCs.

To me, as long as you /try/ to keep a door open for solo people, even if they never take it, you’re being a good game runner. You are giving people options to do what they feel they want to do.

As an alternative to this, what do people think about games that require you to have no connections at the start of your characters story, i.e. your character is completely new to the region the game takes place in, and has never met any of the other PCs (or NPCs) before.

Unless there’s some special thematic reason why that would be necessary, it seems weirdly micro-manage-y to me. It would probably be a big turn-off even if I had no intention of coming in with connections to other PCs.

The number of times I’ve spent figuring out connections with strangers ahead of time only for them to have no bearing on anything RP-wise is very high.

I’ve had almost the opposite experience, and that might be why I would be okay with connections at CG. I’ve been on games where only the pre-existing connections I made held up wonderfully, and everything I’ve tried to create on the fly after CG existed for the scene it was created in, and then that connection never mattered in the narrative for the rest of my time on the game. It never came back up, it didn’t affect story ever. It was just a footnote.

Also, there’s nothing that makes me feel like reaching for the “nope button” harder than wandering into a game where the vast majority of people have done that (unless I know most of the players previously but that can still be iffy) and here’s my dumb noob ass, sitting down at the lunch table.

The thing about pre-setting up connections for me is that often looking at char sheets and thinking about a new char you have an idea of how a relationship or connection might work. I have very rarely had pre-made connections work out in RP the way I thought they would at app time unless I specifically knew the player and how we tend to RP together.

The number of times I’ve spent figuring out connections with strangers ahead of time only for them to have no bearing on anything RP-wise is very high.

To be clear, I’m pro-hooks for figuring out how two char might know or bump into one another, but full on connections have rarely panned out for me.

Also @Polk I do agree that WoD/Comics/Star Wars might have easier baked in connections, I think that the homebrew small town games have where I’ve found it easiest to forge on camera ones.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because I’ve experienced the same thing. I don’t really want PC family - family is a huge influence on a PC’s heart and demeanor, and I often like complicated or even hostile relationships with family because it provides more fun things to develop within the character as conflict - and any sort of preset ‘relationship’ runs into the fact that our PCs might not actually play off of each other that way. We might not be friends! Or you might think of the ‘friend’ relationship very differently than I do.

So these days, I try to make “event-based” connections when something goes beyond “oh yeah, we went to the same place/knew the same people”. I.e. here is a time in the past where the two of us were involved the same event - what was that and how did it turn out? Each PC is absolutely in charge of how their PC feels about that event and about the other PC’s participation in that event…one person can walk away going ‘oh that was keen’ while the other is ‘next time I see that jerk I’m punching him’, but you just have to OOC agree on the objective facts of what the event was and what each PC did.

The number of times I’ve spent figuring out connections with strangers ahead of time only for them to have no bearing on anything RP-wise is very high.

To be clear, I’m pro-hooks for figuring out how two char might know or bump into one another, but full on connections have rarely panned out for me.

Also @Polk I do agree that WoD/Comics/Star Wars might have easier baked in connections, I think that the homebrew small town games have where I’ve found it easiest to forge on camera ones.

WoD games are really good at this. The rich, immersive, emotionally-charged metaplot gives people an easy way to IFF.

Comic book games are great at it.

Star Wars games are good at it.

What really falls down are the slice-of-life, homebrew settings that are just “Here’s a town. It is <haunted/post-apocalyptic/gossipy/emperiled>” that have more difficulty.

I think that having multiple connections to a single NPC (or small group of NPCs) can allow those connections to be forged but with a degree of separation (“Oh, you work with Bob Medicman? I supply him with good booze.”) that can make things more comfortable.

On Empty Night, we were planning to have all of our PCs have some explicit connection to an avuncular NPC wizard, so that all of the PCs would be part of the same community. Said wizard would be regularly played for the first couple of months of the game, and then would be killed on-screen. The intent was to give the PCs reason to draw together instead of fragmenting into little groups.

I can understand the reasoning behind wanting to have characters come onto the grid with connections, but I certainly wouldn’t want to play anywhere that required those connections be to a PC whose player is a stranger to me.

SO. When you ask, ‘Why would they make X decision?’ Just know, that might not even rank of the list of jacked up decisions made at this place.

@Wizz said in Requring Character Connections at Chargen:

Works great at a table, but does not translate at all to MU*s IMHO.

How it translates on this game is new players show up and get to that section of chargen and say ‘I don’t know anyone!’ and the staff says, ‘Well you can use my player bit as a connection’ and then all the players have all their connections to the staff’s PC bits who are at the center of everything and everything revolves around them.

@Faraday said in Requring Character Connections at Chargen:

That’s interesting, because I wondered how using NPCs would actually accomplish anything. Are staff going to run these NPCs regularly?

Nope. Not for other players, anyway. For other staff characters yes. Everyone else, you’ll probably never see them again. If you do, do you think staff there will remember your character’s connection to them? Good luck.

@Faraday said in Requring Character Connections at Chargen:

If not, what’s the difference between saying I trained with the one special NPC jedi master, or some other one I invented in my BG?

Absolutely nothing. Well… except that with established NPCs they can tell you how wrong you are about what you wrote and how they wouldn’t do X, Y, and Z and make you go back to change your background to how they view that NPC.

if a game told me I had to talk to strangers and figure out how I was connected to them I would noperocket into the sun.

I wish I could extra upvote this just for the colorful wording. That’s exactly how I feel.

@Third-Eye said in Requring Character Connections at Chargen:

Yeah, I felt kinda softer on this when I saw you could use NPCs because I actually would do that.

That’s interesting, because I wondered how using NPCs would actually accomplish anything. Are staff going to run these NPCs regularly? If not, what’s the difference between saying I trained with the one special NPC jedi master, or some other one I invented in my BG?

@sao I wouldn’t mind, but I think I would prefer for a game to just give me those connections. For example, if I were making a, I don’t know, psychic mechanic, I’d love for a game to say, “Okay, based on your background, you definitely at least know of Player A, B, and C. I’m copying them on this mail so you guys can figure out what that knowing might look like, and if you have previous interactions.”

Yeah, I felt kinda softer on this when I saw you could use NPCs because I actually would do that. Like, saying I trained under a specific Jedi master or worked for a written NPC rebellion leader on past missions feels helpful in terms of orienting a character and as an affirmation someone read theme info staff considers important. That’s kind of appealing to me, versus just saying I know some dude who’s been in 3 scenes because we went to the same bar or whatever. It also feels like a more long-term workable way to integrate the FATE stuff @Wizz described on a public game.

That way you could also allow people to set preferences like: I’m okay with someone including me as a connection without talking to me OR no randos please, talk to me before you make a connection.

I know when Arx implemented the connection thing I was shocked to find myself on someone’s list in what seemed like a not-so-complimentary way–but I then found out who wrote it and it wasn’t meant that way so it was fine, but it was real jolting to see before that, so I made sure if I included anyone on any rosters I wrote I always checked in with the person to see if they were okay with it first.

But I do like interconnected characters, and don’t think it’s a wrong choice to have people need those connections for their characters, depending on the game. It’d clearly turn a lot of people off, but it might attract some, too.